Photo: TSE reps and scholarship beneficiary reps during a scholarship handover in Inner Papua
PAPUA – Education lays the necessary foundation for a better future. But for all its promise, how this system is run has its own complexities, notably in far-flung areas like Inner Papua. Challenges abound: minimal infrastructure, teaching staff shortage, huge costs of maintaining services, and difficult access to facilities (courtesy of the regions’ steep topography). As a result, many students and teachers must travel long distances, even through forests and rivers, just to get to school.
Stakeholder Tunas Sawa Erma Group (TSE Group) is working to reduce these instances and the barriers causing them. Local voluntary teachers and schoolchildren, in fact, have long benefited from the company’s honorarium payments and scholarships.
Their most recent handover happened Thursday (3/27), where TSE Group’s Tunas Sawa Erma Division delivered scholarships to 297 students — from elementary to college levels — at its office in Jair District, Boven Digoel Regency.
Present for the ceremony, TSE’s General Affairs Director Kiin Kim reiterated the company’s dedication to improving the education system in Papua, whose role is integral to the kids’ future. “We hope our assistance inspires the students to make more achievements, pursue their dreams, and be the pride of their families and villages,” Kim hoped.
Giving free access to education is a regular program at Tunas Sawa Erma. It’s also the company’s way of showing attention and contributing to local society, in particular the lives of children of customary rights holders.
Tunas Sawa Erma’s scholarship selection process comes with clear, transparent criteria to ensure awardees qualify by needs and financial situation. Program results are also reported periodically through internal and external communication channels to maintain accountability.
TSE Group hopes to produce a cohort of brilliant, competitive scholars from Papua and is determined to expand the reach of its scholarship initiative further to include and allow more deep rural children to access decent, quality education. This move would enable young Papuans to continue learning and achieve their dreams without worrying about money constraints. (PR)
